Multimedia is a media comprising a group of contents that utilize different content forms which comprise text, audio, still image, animation, video etc. Rich media (RM) is synonymous with interactive multimedia, i.e. rich media is a dynamic, interactive collection of multimedia data.
Currently standards relating to rich media include MPEG-4 part 20: Lightweight Application Scene Representation/Simple Aggregation Format (LASeR/SAF), 3GPP SA4 Dynamic and Interactive Multimedia Scene (DIMS), OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) BOAST Rich Media Environment Architecture etc. Other standards, such as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), both defined by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), can support the compilation of rich media presentations that integrate streaming audio and video with images, text and other types of materials.
Furthermore, industrial solutions supporting rich media services include Adobe flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Sun JavaFX and Nokia Mobile Open Rich-media Environment.
In current RM applications, a RM content consisting of several elementary units of content is delivered to a single client for rendering all elementary units of content on the rendering space of the single client. Herein, the action of rendering has different meanings dependent on the content to be rendered, e.g. it may mean playing an audio content; it may mean displaying a video content; and it may mean presenting a text or a still image etc.
However, it is desired to render a RM content on several rendering spaces, i.e. several devices, simultaneously. For example, in a home environment, a user wishes to watch video on a TV screen while displaying content related information on a second screen; a TV service provider wants to push interactive content to users' mobile phones in addition to traditional TV programs, to enable interactive services such as voting.